Effective collection, management, and control of information has become a central component of modern business processes. To this end, many businesses, both large and small, now implement computer-based information management systems.
Data management is an important component of computer-based information management systems. Many users now implement storage networks to manage data operations in computer-based information management systems. Storage networks have evolved in computing power and complexity to provide highly reliable, managed storage solutions that may be distributed across a wide geographic area.
Distributed storage systems present particular storage management issues. Distributed storage systems implement multiple storage locations that may be separated by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of miles. The communication link(s) between storage sites may include one or more segments that are a part of a public communication network, rather than a dedicated, private communication network. These and other factors may create undesirable variability in the performance of data transmission operations between storage locations in a storage network. Effective management of data transmission operations between storage locations is desirable to maintain adequate performance levels in storage networks.